The academy doesn't generally award Oscars to people
who play monsters in comic book movies, but if ever one man deserved
such an award, it is Ron Perlman. Although he has never been awarded by the American
academy, he has won several Emmys for his work in Beauty and the
Beast, and was nominated by the French Academy as Best Supporting
Actor for his role in Quest for Fire.

I don't think there has ever been
anyone quite like him, a man capable of bringing true humanity and
natural expression to people trapped inside distorted and deformed
bodies. Good acting is not easy even when you can use your own face,
but it's damned hard to do through latex, and Perlman is the master.
This guy will leave you crying in The City of Lost Children, and
will absolutely dazzle you with his tour-de-force performance in The
Name of the Rose, in which he plays a toothless, feeble-minded
hunchback who speaks a melange of languages, yet makes the
character seem as sympathetic and normal and casual as your next
door neighbor. After you watch that movie, you will swear that the
part was played by a real hunchback, or at least by a man no taller
than 4', yet Perlman is 6'3" or more.

The plot of Hellboy is completely ridiculous, even by
comic book standards (Rasputin + Nazis + an infinitely
self-replicating hell-hound + an H.P. Lovecraft demon hoping to
cross through the gate from another dimension). The minor characters
are not particularly interesting, except for a few fleeting moments
from the sarcastic deadpan specialist Jeffrey Tambor as an FBI
big-wig. The action scenes are OK, but some of the
scene transitions are confusing. Granted, the set design is colorful
and imaginative, but do you watch a movie for set design? No. You
need something involving. Perlman, as the title character,
provides it.

Perlman single-handedly makes Hellboy worth watching. As a
demon rescued from hell and raised by a kindly professor to be a
friend of man, he is simultaneously swaggering and insecure, heroic
and casual, cynical and idealistic. Although Perlman is in his 50s
and getting a bit old to be an action hero who spends all day in a
heavy costume and make-up, his performance, in every nuance of
emotion, with every punch line, and throughout the action scenes, is
just note perfect. In fact, after seeing him here, I wished they had
cast him instead of Michael Chiklis to play Ben Grimm in The
Fantastic Four, because it seemed to me that he was exactly how I
imagined The Thing.

The bottom line is that Hellboy is a surprisingly
good watch, despite a plot which is kind of a cross between the most
outrageous aspects of Raiders of the Lost Ark and Men in Black
2. Whenever the thing gets too silly, Perlman shows up and puts it
right back on course. With two fully-loaded disks of features (one
of the documentaries is longer than the film!), the DVD is an
excellent addition to your collection.

The
Critics Vote ...

Super-panel consensus: more than three stars. James
Berardinelli 3/4, Roger Ebert 3.5/4.

The meaning of the IMDb
score: 7.5 usually indicates a level of
excellence equivalent to about three and a half stars
from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm
watchability, comparable to approximately two and a half stars
from the critics. The fives are generally not
worthwhile unless they are really your kind of
material, equivalent to about a two star rating from the critics,
or a C- from our system.
Films rated below five are generally awful even if you
like that kind of film - this score is roughly equivalent to one
and a half stars from the critics or a D on our scale. (Possibly even less,
depending on just how far below five the rating
is.

My own
guideline: A means the movie is so good it
will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not
good enough to win you over if you hate the
genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an
open mind about this type of film. C means it will only
appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover
appeal. (C+ means it has no crossover appeal, but
will be considered excellent by genre fans, while
C- indicates that it we found it to
be a poor movie although genre addicts find it watchable). D means you'll hate it even if you
like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if
you love the genre. F means that the film is not only
unappealing across-the-board, but technically
inept as well. Any film rated C- or better is recommended for
fans of that type of film. Any film rated B- or better is
recommended for just about anyone. We don't score films below C-
that often, because we like movies and we think that most of
them have at least a solid niche audience. Now that you know
that, you should have serious reservations about any movie below
C-.

Based on this description, this is a C+. Very
entertaining comic book movie, thanks to Mr Perlman.
DVD recommended.